Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Pre-liminary notes: I've finally best thought of how to describe my style and how I connect with fashion. EDIT: This was an old draft that I have finally finished and hence has some old experiences in there. I have watched a tonne more episodes of the HBO series Girls.* I have no idea what images best exemplify this train of thought and I am FAR TOO LAZY to draw something. So enjoy some images from Style Bubble, run by Susanna Lau possibly the best fashion blogger with power-clasher intent. You go girl. *

I just watched my first episode of Girls (second season, episode three I think... might be episode two though). As awesome as it was and as much as I did enjoy it, there were still feel of slight discomfort since it mainly followed one set of characters doing cocaine from the toilet lid of a club in New York. The other protagonist was having sex with a really strange and disturbed artist who had old dolls and blood stuff in his house which looked like an office. One good thing did come of it, and I think I will watch it on a weekly basis from now until university starts up again since there was just so much witty dialogue and empathy for the characters. What I really admired from the script was the term "power clashing"- which really describes the way I dress and why I buy things- I'm drawn like a hapless moth to a bug zapper for anything printed and with colours because it just starts such an interesting conversation.On their own it's interesting enough when I have to tone down an outfit for a family function or when out with my mother buy by myself I can really cause some mischief and mayhem with an outfit.

I think it all stems from my love of Tavi Gevinson and who other people admire courage of wearing outfits that are weird or just above the norm, breaking the boundaries and things like that. She bought stuff from thrift stores and would layer things up in unusual ways, leading to some very tangled things but also well-composed and extraordinary photographs of the results which she famously showcased on her blog. We love the unusual and daring, plus it sticks in your mind if someone has a good outfit that isn't exactly expected-of-everyday-life either and it makes them unique. Some people have called out this culture of eccentricity and I really am sick of the hate. Becase I don't think modern fashion blogging isn't necessarily stemming from people trying to out-compete each other and out-weird each other. Don't you think you can give us a little more credit than that? It's about finding what suits your tastes and expression of self. Although I still don't feel like I can define myself and what I like one hundred percent, I am comfortable with who I am and what I do to express my artistis side. I feel hampered when my mother is still hyper-critical of what I wear when I go out with her, often hearing two minutes of her saying "ew" at me isn't the best start to a day out in town. But it does help me build a tough shell and I think that's vital to character building too.

It's always interesting to see more than one aspect of how someone dresses as well- as opposed to the same theme of pretty princess dresses and the same structure day in and day out. I don't want to name names but these are some people I follow- because I need angry motivation sometimes of a "I can do better than that" mentality, which I answer with "well, why don't I then?". It's probably not the healthiest but I think it works and they still evoke a good inspiration of ideas. Of course it means that these bloggers are confident in themselves and have perfected how they want to present themselves and that's great, but I prefer to maintain that variety is the spice of life and I think the easiest way to make a day interesting is to have a great outfit or something like that. Even adding a small little badge with a weird saying or popular culture reference can help you to socially network; given the right time and place. I don't have a wardrobe of everything similar but instead have collected bits and pieces over the years that don't necessarily all work together. For the moment it is just fun to realise finally when something old I own and something new I've bought can work together in a really spectcular way and I want to try and channel that everday. Otherwise I will have a huge wardrobe and STILL manage to feel like I have nothing to wear.I might well be crazy for romanticising and trying to infuse the simple ritual of getting dressed with so much importance and ceremony, but it is honestly a passion of mine at the moment. I spend most of my income, when I am not busily trying to save on clothes and accessories for my wardrobe and I mostly sell my old ones on eBay as well to make room for the new. My boyfriend prefers to get DVDs and create a collection and we mutually respect each other for having our own niche to fill. Fashion isn't a calling to me, it's not a way of life. I can take a break from it and there are times when I altogether forget about this facet of my life when something else consumes my schedule. But it occupies a special space in my head and that feels like enough at the moment to keep me happy. I can waste hours and hours looking for stuff on the Internet and thinking of combining things together in a cool way that I don't actually have in my posession. As soon as my brain wants to cooperate and thinks creatively about the clothes I actually do own, then we'll see some decent creativity. Until that happens and while I am still trying to figure out my life, I thank anyone and everyone who has read or just simply clicked on my blog because it feels like a reward/ support system/ scoop of fertilizer to help me grown and develop as a person interested in fashion.

I'm slowly working through viewing the works showcased on The Adorous
website and relishing feeling cultured. It's a little easier for me to
mindlessly click on things rather than wade through the sea of magazines
because there's somehow less guilt associated. It's like being a
neglagent parent or pet owner and discovery little Fluffy knocked over
their water dish hours ago. Anyway, I hate my metaphors, I peaked in
delivery good metaphors. This is a nice way to do things now and there's
many wonderful points to it- plus I'm finding the origin of
some photographs I have already seen on the Internet that were callously
posted without the origin. Sometimes I do like to explore photography,
especially those starring people which seems to be the hardest for me to
do myself. Everyone I know is super self-conscious, even my mother and
especially my boyfriend so I can't really practice taking portraits or
whatever unless their my own. In which case I can't really think clearly
about techniques such as lighting since half the time I have to guess
where I am in the frame.

But anyway, there's a certain moodiness that Marie Zucker
captures within her projects, a bit like grunge music video clips of
Hole or The Cranberries but with contemporary grooming. I don't really
come across any witchy vibes as much as I used to, say a year ago but when I do it's a bit of a special experience lusting after long and flowy dresses and smoke flares. I scrolled through the whole Adorous
site yesterday and saved a lot of my favourites, only to realise that
there was little to no organisation of my system. So now I'm starting
from the bottom and working my way up and selecting through artists so
we can all see their themes and just how they handle their work. There's
also no way I would be able to memorise and instinctively know what
image came from which project so this is a more logical progression for
me in my jumble of a pancake batter mind.

The site was started by Petra Collins who has done many a collaboration with Rookie Mag and featured in their DIY
crown videos but there are heaps of contributors who have the same soft
focus photography style and sepia-tone drenched images. I'm really
intrigued by the images that are a kaleidoscope of someone's
face and whether or not a cracked lens or something was used or it was
all editing work. Whatever the case, it's really beautiful and does
create a magical mood. But there's not a lot of that in Zucker's
body of work, instead there's simple colour themes and goddess-like
women floating about in dilapidated buildings or the most serene of
forest settings. Nature and beauty don't frequently crop up in classical
paintings or art but after having studied poetry by John Keats they
seem to naturally go hand in hand. Or perhaps I've been brain-washed and
should really read more poetry when I can or save up all my first year
electives for literature classes and journalism to improve my writing.

A
favourite project from what I've shown is definitely those seraph beings
in a boat and wedding dresses- their like transcendent mirror images
and the whole set sends shivers up my spine. I wonder whether it was
actually shot on a lake with the artist cloistered to one end of a rickety paddle boat while the models poised elegantly like a tableau
combined with the ease and tone of a scene from The Virgin Suicides, or
for that matter, any Sofia Coppola movie. The flaky glittery eyeshadow
makes me longing for Halloween: the sheer opportunity to dress like a
Black Swan Ballerina and the close up of angelic material imbued in
sparkles while imitating the currents of a lake disturbed by a romantic
paddle is my favourite shot. I have a feeling the photographer lends her
own clothes on the shoots she does with a certain lean towards shoes in
the same boat as Jeffrey Campbell, dresses and nightgowns in the vain
of a character from Mad Men and just a general, overall awesomeness.

I look like an overgrown teenage girl with such a cutesy outfit and for the first time in a long time it's not bugging me. *Hooray self-realisation/ feeling valid through fashion* It's amazing what a quick lick of eyeliner, lipstick and pretty jewellery can do for one's mood. I also guess I've been inspired by Hannah's amazing rompers and jumpsuits after watching Girls for the last few days and channeled some of her aesthetic. However I will not gamble on trying to write a book or cook for my friends and invite them all around to dinner- that's just a bit too adult for me to handle and we're going to take things slow. Now I'm off to discover the wonder and merriment of Hole, listen to Cancer Bats and Billy Talent while playing on my phone to get me in the mood for Soundwave tomorrow. WHERE DID THE TIME GO!? Hopefully I'll be bringing you pictures and I won't lose my camera or my mind when taking in the magical world of dark music brought to life in real life.

A Fidelity for Fashion: JournalI've been super
swamped with a lot of stuff lately, but it's been comforting to keep up
with some amazing blog posts and soak in all the inspirational
photographs people are posting. It's pretty easy for me to become
disillusioned with having to go to work and university so it's the
perfect escape. Also my room still looks like a bomb went off so it's
not really the ideal place for me to chill. I had meant to clean my room
which did happen a few times during the holiday break but it got messy
again after about a week- which is what usually happens. I think the
best way for my room to finally resemble my dream room, and to have
everything the way I want is to start from scratch. And I am trying to
sell old stuff but with minimal success and at a mind-numbingly slow
pace.

I think viewing all this cool content slowly begins to
shape what I like and the things I explore in turn so although I don't
mention it a lot I think it is an important aspect of being a blogger.
Whenever someone new follows my blog I use it as an opportunity to
explore more blogs they like which might be similar, but I'm also
missing out on some radical babes and blogs I know. Trying to search
through blogs using a search engine though is just a nightmare and the
layouts can all be very bland to tell the truth. When I do like
something though I try and give nice feedback and comments whenever I
can really but here's a whole assortment of images that were too good
for me not to save onto my hard drive. I'll try and do my best with the
image sources and stuff but essentially I am playing a dicey memory
game that could upset some people.